Whimsica: Green Echo
by PastellPop
Summary: NOTE: I'm currently thinking of a new storyline to bring this into because the old one I planned was kinda blegh... Fic on hiatus.


Miku's P.O.V.

Ever since I was little, I longed to explore the outside world, the world outside of my tiny wooden hut in the vast blue woods.

Hibiki was the name of the forest. It was a forest of echoes and I'd say it was rather beautiful.

Echoes came in many colors, but the only echoes in Hibiki were green and blue. Green and blue were the kinds of echoes that were always serene and peaceful.

Mother called my home "majestic", because it was scattered with graceful songdeer and was abundant in delicious, ripe, and juicy fruits called Shizuku that grew on the wide trees.

Mother tells me that if I kept eating Shizuku fruit, I'd grow up to be healthy and live a long life filled with dreams.

"They're called Shizuku fruits because they contain drops of life in them. Each one will add a few more drops to your fountain of longevity, or so the legends say."

Though the people in my village lived for a long time, almost all of them have never left Hibiki. Not even the elder who had lived for three-hundered-three years and remembered the Deathly Snows that once killed off half our population.

Hibiki was the forest of solitude. It was blocked by a barrier that only let in peaceful echoes and nothing else. No people or animals were able to escape.

And apparently, time passed slower inside the Hibiki realm than the places that surrounded it.

Though I am grateful for my destined long life, my curiosity gets the best of my every day.

I live in a world called Whimsica, and I've heard many different incredible, bewildering stories of the outside place beyond the boundaries, each one was so individual that I couldn't figure out which was correct. Which one was really out there somewhere?

Maybe all of them were correct, I thought one day.

Maybe the world outside of the boundaries was so big, it contained every single one of these marvelous tales.

Ever since I thought about it this way, I've been longing to see it for myself.

Masses of water bigger than countried. They're called oceans! If I was a mermaid, my life would surely be filled with journeys.

Mermaids were a mysterious breed of human. Or perhaps they were a breed of fish? Mermaids had human heads and fish tails, they lived in he ocean. They were always very beautiful, or so I've heard.

I've also heard that the biggest creatures in the world live in oceans. They are called whales. I have always thought they sounded so majestic.

The biggest creature I've ever seen was scruffy Papa Panda, and he's not even much bigger than Father, who was already a big strong man. I'd say Papa Panda isn't even twice the size of him.

I've longed to meet a princess, no... I wanted to BE a princess. I wanted to live in one of the giant houses called palaces, and eat foods that sounded so different, exotic, and delicious.

I had my friend, Ring living with me. Her personality was as breezy carefree as her windblown sky-colored hair. I was always weighed down with thoughts, while her life was light like the wind. Not like being carefree like her was bad. I was in fact kind of jealous that she never let anything weigh her down.

Ring's last name was Suzune, which meant "bell sound". It had a more straightforward meaning than my last name, Hatsune or "first sound". First sound of _what,_ exactly?

I met Ring a few years ago in school, we became friends and I found out she lived near me.

We loved playing near the streams, or laying on the floor of our treehouse and looking up towards the ever-expanding branches above, reaching into the endless sky which looked fragile like glass.

I always wonder, what would happen if a tree were to grow past the sky? Would it shatter?

I had another friend too, but it was a story that took just a bit more explaining.

One day, I was out picking Shizuku fruits and putting them in my sack to carry back home. After hearing some footsteps, I soon spotted a visitor I've never seen, walking along the woods in a bit of a daze.

She had shockingly white hair, iwhite/i as in the color of snow, moon and clouds. Not hair.

White was not a color for hair. Hair was green or blue, or somewhere in between. Never white. I grew very curious.

We were a few feet apart now.

"Who are you?" my voice echoed, only lightly across the endless grotto of glasslike trees.

I hoped I wasn't sounding too rude to her.

The girl began to stutter before she turned her face aside.

The slow, drafty wind lifted her peculiar hair and uncovered her eyes. They were crimson, as if colored strongly of blood. Seeing them made me wonder if she was ill or something. Her skin was very pale, and I had never seen a person with eyes the color of blood.

"Please answer." I said.

She seemed very quiet, but looked as if she were filled with stories.

Her clothes were also strange. Her dress wasn't connected the ways ours were. Her skirt had a split between her two legs, no... it was more like each leg had its individual skirt.

Wait... didn't the outsiders call things like these "pants"?

"Are you from outside the boundaries?"

A bird's tender song accompanied the still silence between us.

"I... think I am." the girl nervously said. She sounded... unsure.

But she had a soft voice. It had a very deep blue color to it, unlike my voice which was noisier and turquoise.

"I'm not... from your world. And I think I'm lost."

My eyes popped wide open. So she's from one of those places? She seemed so normal though, aside from her hair and eyes. (and not in a bad way, necessarilly.) I couldn't wait to get to know her...

"Then... how did you make it in here?" I said to her.

"This boundaries let only noises pass through. Soft, weak noises... echoes."

"Weak noise..." the girl pondered.

"My name... is weak noise."

"...Huh?"

"My name is... Yowane. Yowane Haku, spelled with the kanji "weak" (弱) and "noise" (音). So maybe..."

"Ah! Maybe that's why the forest let you in!" I completed her statement.

"They say that the forest of Hibiki could tell people's names... I was named Miku (美久) so I could have a beautiful long life. My mother thought if the forest knee, it gift me with a great life."

Haku seemed to be vaguely listening to me, but also she was mystified. She was turning her head around the forest, appearing to take interest in it.

"So, Haku Yowane, why are you here?"

Haku sighed a bit. I could tell she was exhausted and rather sleepy.

"Well... it's a very long story. And you're probably not going to believe in it. It's really far-fetched."

I got the gist of it then, a little. It seemed like Haku was an exhausted traveler who needed some rest. And I couldn't provide the rest she needed all on my own.

"Anyway, you're lost." I said.

"You can go home with me. Then you can tell me all about yourself."

I didn't exactly knew what to do with her. She looked much different from anyone I had seen, yet she felt the same as any girl I knew.

"B-but..."

She seemed to have a habit of stammering.

"You don't need to. Um..."

I wanted for this shy girl to know she could feel welcomed.

"Oh, don't worry. My mom is incredibly nice. She'd let anyone stay in our home. Like one day, Papa Panda, the biggest panda in Hibiki, had a fight with his mate. My mother even tried negotiating the two to get back together, and it worked! Plus, my mom makes the best soup anyone's ever tasted."

"Okay..." Haku agreed with a small grin. I thought she looked rather pretty when she smiled.

We both took the short trail through the exit of the thicker woods and into our hut, which was somewhat secluded from the busier village near the central town.

"Well, my house is a bit small, but I hope it'll be fine." I said to Haku. She didn't talk much, but she didn't seem to have anything wrong with this.

But to my surprise, I wasn't prepared for what would happen when I opened the door to my small hut.

My mother welcomed me home as always, dusting the table she did her embroidery on, but when she turned around to kindly greet me... she looked right next to me and her green pupils shrank.

Her mouth gaped open, her face flashed white and she dropped all the cleaning supplies on to our knitted carpet.

"Mother, are you okay?" I asked.

I was hoping her actions had nothing to do with Haku...

"This girl isn't from here, but the forest let her in." I cleared the matter up, just in case.

"She's lost. We can take her in for a while, can't we, mother?"

"No... no, no..." my mom's voice rose in an emotion I was very unfamiliar with, especially coming from her.

I felt my own blood freeze up inside me as well...

"She... that girl... she's..."

Haku nervously slid behind me, putting her shaking hands on the back of my dress cape.

"she's... exactly like the "Daughter of White" from the historical legend... who caused the Deathly Snows..."

Mom's eyes viciously widened as she spoke.

_"she was the cursed human that had us all killed off, long, long ago..."_

Endnote:

This will connect to another fanfic of minestarts will have HakuxAkaito. It will star Haku as the main character. It will explain what has happened before.

And to be honest, I don't have the whole entire thing planned out.

This fanfic will probably update slowly, I'm sorry.

And it won't be as dramatic as the end of this art may suggest.


End file.
